A Legacy for Womankind Beyond Motherhood with Jeanne Safer

Psychotherapist Jeanne Safer, author of the 1996 book Beyond Motherhood on why not all women are destined to become mothers—and that's okay. In the episode we discuss: 

-Anticipating—and fearing—our parents’ responses to us writing on this subject

-The value in accepting the cold, hard facts, for healing family dysfunction

-Why being a “woman without kids” is still seen as so taboo – and the internal questions that can arise as a result

-The liberation that results from staying true to what is right for you

-How attitudes have changed in the 25+ years since Jeanne’s book was published

-Working through the shame of feeling insufficiently “loving” as a non-mother

-The traits that equip a person for the “psychological vocation” of motherhood 

-Why there is no life without regrets – no matter what path we choose

-Using the climate as an “excuse” for not having kids

-How the IVF industry plays to women’s fears that they will regret not having kids

-Grieving not becoming a mother – no matter how you feel about not having kids

-Why “mothering” is not inherently “feminine” and why it’s okay not to feel a maternal instinct

You can learn more about Jeanne Safer, and her book Beyond Motherhood HERE. You can also read her follow-up essay in Meghan Daum's anthology, Selfish, Shallow and Self-Absorbed: 16 Writers on the Decision Not to Have kids.

You can pre-order your copy of Women Without Kids: The Revolutionary Rise of an Unsung Sisterhood HERE.